Depending on the situation that there may be different reasons for someone's realease. You mention serving their sentance, but someone who's been pardoned may take offense to 'ex-con'. You can also be detained without ever being convicted if you can't post bail or bail is denied.
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JoeFeb 5 '14 at 20:55

Parolee sounds pretty good. Is it considered parole when a prisoner is permanently released after serving their sentence?
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crushFeb 5 '14 at 19:13

7

Actually, if the sentence is fully served, the former prisoner is not a parolee. Parole is the release of a prisoner before the full sentence is served, usually for good behavior, and parole lasts for a limited time.
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bibFeb 5 '14 at 19:19

1

@crush - no, it's not. A parolee is out on parole only, and if they break the rules of their parole, they have to go back in jail. Their sentence is not fully served while on parole.
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oerkelensFeb 5 '14 at 19:20

7

How about "Civilian" ? They served their time, shouldn't they be entitled to the whole 'fresh start' thing? If you're going to keep labeling them with something they've already paid the price for in full, you're not really helping them break the cycle.
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ShadurFeb 6 '14 at 7:49

3

@jwenting I'd be less concerned with their constitutional right to own a gun and more with their ability to get hired in a legitimate job that'd enable them to make a living without having to fall back into bad habits...
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ShadurFeb 6 '14 at 10:35

'Offender' and 'ex-offender' are the kinds of terms used in Britain by professionals working in the criminal justice system, magistrates, solicitors, probation-officers, social workers etc. It is also probably the term the police would use if speaking publicly. What individual police officers call convicts, whilst drinking tea in the station canteen probably doesn't bear repeating. Otherwise most of the expressions here, surprisingly, are very similar to Britain.
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WS2Feb 5 '14 at 20:40

It seems to me that ex-offender could potentially mean more than just someone who was formerly incarcerated.
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crushFeb 6 '14 at 13:40

2

It seems to me that ex-offender is really easy to confuse with the class of criminal that you get if you prepend it with an s
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Ross AikenFeb 6 '14 at 16:17

@crush Could do, but doesn't, at least the way it's used by the British justice system.
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David RicherbyFeb 6 '14 at 19:48

Rehabilitated...Lol. The best one was "Resocialized", as if the life of a prisoner and their surrounding crowd of convicts, is any kind of way to "socialize" into a real life society of people.

I'm sorry. I am not a convicted criminal myself, but I know and have known several people who have been to prison, and let me tell you... it's nothing but a revolving door for them. Eventually, they just can't sit well in regular society and the rules are not the same as they are in prison. The lack of "respect", or what inmates claim to be "respect" is neither gained in the same way, nor lost in the same way, out here in the real world.

Here we call them FELONS. As in: Has been convicted of a felony crime, lost the right to vote and the right to bear arms.

a felon is someone convicted of a felony, not a generic term for people serving or having served prison time (which can be handed out for other things that are not felonies).
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jwentingFeb 6 '14 at 10:36

2

This should be less editorial and more answer focused. Seems like you have two answers here — rehabilitated and felon. Resocialized has already been given and should be removed from your answer or you can make it more obvious that you are comparing your answers to that one. And also, jwenting is right that felon is really too narrow to fit this context.
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Kit Z. Fox♦Feb 6 '14 at 14:16

3

@KitFox I think he is simply laughing at the notion of "Rehabilitated" being offered as an answer. In fact I think his first two paragraphs are laughing at the notion and rationalizing his belief. The only answer provided (albeit a vague one [no geolocation provided for "here"]) is the last sentence.
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TylerHFeb 6 '14 at 16:33